Friday, January 06, 2012

More on the New Professionalism (medical) and what it is really about

The New Medical Professionalism has been a topic of concern to me for some time and I have tried to express my objections to what it represents on more than one occasion. See here.

But what I believe to be the definitive critique and explanation of what that document is all about has been published on the blog The Covert Rationing Blog by DrRich. See here.

Everyone should read it and share it with a colleague .Here is one quote:

To summarize, by the turn of the millennium doctors were being coerced to withhold healthcare from their patients at the bedside, and thus to violate their time-honored primary professional directive. The intent of the 2002 Charter on medical professionalism was to repair the problem (i.e., to cure the “frustration”), not by confronting the forces of evil doing the coercion, but rather, by simply changing medical ethics to make bedside rationing OK. And that’s just what the document did, though only after careful re-editing to make this radical change to medical ethics sound as benign as possible.

By explicitly endorsing the 2002 Charter on medical professionalism, the Sixth Edition of the ACP Ethics Manual thereby endorses healthcare rationing at the bedside – but it does so quietly, at arm’s length, so as not to stir up unwanted passions.

DrRich's topic for this essay is actually the New Ethics Manuel authored by the ACP and comments on the New Professionalism are offered in that context. Read his blog to learn about what Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel found particularly praise worthy regarding the new ethics.